Female Breadwinners | FemaleBreadWinners

Rise of Technology – Boom or Bust for Female Professionals?

Women make over half of all technology purchases; using iPads, smartphones and laptops to manage the ‘merge’ that is the new 24 hour workday. Last year I relied heavily on technology as I travelled between work commitments in Boston, London and Beijing. As I tap into my own iPad, knowing it has changed the way I work forever. I am grateful but also aware of the heightened expectations for immediacy of action. Has technology and globalisation been a boon for working women or simply raised expectations around the ‘new normal’?

As discussed in The Plight of the Alpha Female in City Journal: “A global economy, indifferent to sexual identity, has intensified competition in just about every industry. Globalization has made international travel a necessary part of business… And having clients and colleagues in scattered time zones often means a never-ending workday.” So how exactly did we arrive in a place where both male and female high-achievers feel they can never turn off? As succinctly described in the article: “First, new technologies like mobile phones, e-mail, and videoconferencing made it possible for employees to work in locations other than the office and, in many cases, to structure their own hours. And second, worker demand for flextime grew, especially among the mothers who were now making up a larger share of mid-level employees. Even though the government doesn’t require it, 77 percent of American firms these days offer flextime to some of their workers, according to the respected Families and Work Institute.”

We at Female Breadwinners recognise that flexibility is a gift many working women simply don’t have – retail clerks can’t ring up your purchases from home and hotel cleaners can’t make beds from their smartphone. However, I, probably like you, am part of this rise of both globalisation and technology. I sit here typing at 7:30 pm while my husband makes the Thai Beef Salad I was planning on cooking tonight, so I can get just a bit more time at my computer. I wouldn’t be here without his flexibility, and no doubt if you’re reading this in your down-time, you have felt the strain too.

Women Are More Efficient Thinkers

In celebration of International Women’s Week, we at Female Breadwinners are starting with new research proving what many of us already intuited; that women are more efficient thinkers. As discussed in the Daily Telegraph: “Scientists have been long puzzled over why women can show just as much intelligence as men, although their brains are eight per cent smaller. Now a study by universities in Los Angeles and Madrid have shown that for women, brain size does not matter because they are more “efficient”.

The research, published in the journal Intelligence described that: “Despite the fact the women had smaller brains they performed better in inductive reasoning, some numerical skills and were better at keeping track of a changing situation – although men did better on spatial intelligence. The researchers concluded that women’s brains are able to complete and even excel at complicated tasks with less energy and fewer neurons. At this structural level, females might show greater efficiency requiring less neural material for achieving behavioural results on a par with males,” the paper read.

Women’s increased efficiency should be heralded as good news by employers. Our Clients are working longer hours and often operate in organisational cultures where presenteeism is the name of the game for promotion. To get ahead, men and women must entertain clients and network after an already long day. Additionally, they take calls with colleagues and clients spanning many time zones and respond to requests at all hours of the day. As discussed in the research, being able to keep track of a “changing situation” should be lauded as a highly valuable 21st century skill.

To this point, measuring and rewarding people solely on the numbers of their ‘desk bound hours’ is inefficient. Many of our clients are professional services firms where billable hours has historically measured someone’s ‘commitment and value’ to the firm. It is an increasingly antiquated system that rewards inefficiency in the long term. The question becomes: what is the motivation of doing things in less time if we are paid on an hourly basis? However, purchasers of professional services are increasingly demanding fixed fee contracts – a model that requires employees to be as efficient as possible with the little time they have. Instead, the workplace of the future will require efficiency in order to keep pace with lower labour costs in developing countries, and respond to the demands of global clients who don’t identify or want to engage with a billable hours model. Long live the efficient worker – however her brain is wired!

Sheryl Sandberg’s Advice on Embracing ‘And’ for Working Mothers

As momentum grows around gender diversity issues, it is heartening to see mainstream media begin to reflect that women want coverage on issues that are important to them, rather than be relegated to the Style or Weekend pages of most major newspapers. The Atlantic online magazine is now offering an entire subsection devoted to issues with a gendered spin.

The new channel; ‘Sexes’ highlights everything from sexual violence in India to the increase in female representation of Hollywood producers, directors and even interesting characters. I was struck by a recent article on Sheryl Sandberg’s upcoming book; Lean In where she encourages men to recognise women beyond the binary choice of devoted mother or consummate professional.

As Gayle Tzemach Lemmon wrote in her piece Sheryl Sandberg’s Radically Realistic ‘And’ Solution for Working Mothers:
Somehow, today—even while women learn and earn in greater numbers than ever before—the idea that women live in an “either/or” world stubbornly hangs on. A woman can either be a mother or a professional. Career-driven or family-oriented. A great wife or a great worker. Not both. In other words, the choices are Donna Reed and Murphy Brown (pre-baby). Precious few Clair Huxtables out there.

That is the challenge Sheryl Sandberg’s book sets out to tackle. In a women-in-the-workplace discussion consisting mostly of “either/ors,” her argument in the upcoming book Lean In injects the word “and” into the conversation in a way that urges women to bring their “whole selves” to work. Choice is good, and so is aspiration. Ambition is great, and so is telling your boss that you want to have children. Working hard at your job is important, and so is finding a way to leave the office early enough to be home for dinner with your kids.”

In my own work with male professionals, I am pleased to see how many men understand that ‘and’ is the new normal for most women. Yet progress remains elusive with others who struggle to see why a woman should be able to have both a top career and a family – in exactly the same way as men.

Image courtesy of Reuters

“A Wife’s Higher Salary can affect men in the bedroom” – Patronising and Inaccurate?

At Female Breadwinners, we love to engage with readers on what it means to be a modern woman and a modern man. Viewing the world through their perspective gets us under the skin of what is really going on in real 21st century families. That’s why it was great to hear from Mark Tyler, a regular reader of our blog, on the recent scaremongering around female breadwinners and their supposedly sexually emasculated male partners. Mark found the recent article in the Daily Mail hugely patronising and in his experience, inaccurate.

Mark writes: I recently ran across the article linked above entitled, “A wife’s higher salary ‘can affect men in the bedroom’: Those with well paid wives are more likely to take Viagra.”

The title is an accurate description of the research that was done and its conclusions. But, of course, it’s portrayed as completely negative. As the article begins: “They already have to suffer the indignity of being out-earned by their wives. Now it seems men married to high-flying women may also be under-performing in the bedroom. A study found that husbands who earn less than their spouses are more likely to take Viagra and similar drugs than those who are the main breadwinners. The researchers aren’t sure why, but loss of pride, plus anger and frustration may all play a role.”

OK, let me get this straight – the “researchers aren’t sure why,” but let’s write an entire article based on speculation that “husbands who earn less than their spouses” may “also” (whatever that means) “be under-performing in the bedroom.”

Allow me to offer an alternative that is, in my opinion, more likely to be true: Husbands who earn less than their wives equal or exceed the bedroom performance of husbands who earn more than their wives, but the husbands of high-earning wives are motivated to perform even better in bed and, as a result, are more likely to take Viagra than the primary-breadwinner husbands. Put another way – breadwinner husbands are more likely to be duds in the bedroom and refuse to do things to improve their performance there.

Is my alternative true? I don’t know. But why, oh why, is every non-traditional marriage arrangement mocked, and especially the husband? For the record, in my marriage, I’m not “suffering indignity” by doing what we’re doing. Nor do I suffer from loss of pride, anger, and frustration any more or less than if I were working.

Further, what if we looked at possible other false cause/effect scenarios. Forget about husband/wife. Let’s consider if there were a study finding that a highly-educated, high-earning person is more likely to visit the dentist than is her less-educated, low-earning counterpart. Would anyone conclude from this that high-earners have worse teeth than low earners? Likely not. Instead we’d conclude that high-earners take better care of themselves and that low earners should go more often to the dentist.

Why can’t it be the same with this Viagra study, at least as a possibility, an alternative? Why can’t the article lead say, “They have adapted to being out-earned by their wives. Now it seems men married to high-flying women may also be providing something extra in the bedroom. A study found that husbands who earn less than their spouses are more likely to take Viagra and similar drugs than those who are the main breadwinners. The researchers aren’t sure why, but a desire to please their spouse in non-financial ways may play a role.”